2/19/09

New York’s Office for Design & Architecture (ODA) recently unveiled its plan for the conversion of an old gas station into the Long Island City Bakery, According to the ODA the project will be “situated at the crossroads of the older commercial Long Island City and the newer residential Long Island City with housing developments near the East River.”

The ODA has said there will be a two fold design approach to the construction of the bakery. “The first process involves the conversion of a gas station mechanics garage into a warm, inviting and sustainable environment. The second challenge is to evoke the idea of a bakery into an architectural expression that responded to the owner’s tight budget.”

The use of steel channels and wooden dough rollers in the exterior design of the building will help to create an innovative rain screen. These design elements will be complimented with grass throughout the parking lot and Boston Ivy that will continue vegetation up the front of the building.

The design team plans to utilize and refurbish key existing elements of the building including walls, garage doors, and skylights. Leaving these elements exposed “recognizes the past use of the garage while integrating the new ideas centered around baking.”

Posted by Nicholas Van Kuren

2/6/09

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Moroso, the cutting edge furniture company, has decked out their window with Ron Arad’s Soft Heart rocking chair. The window installation went up on February first and can be seen from the street side at 146 Greene St. in New York.

In partnering with Moroso now over a decade ago, Ron Arad jump-started his move from functional artwork to design for industrial production. The partnership began with Arad’s iconic spring collection of 1991, from which the whimsical rocking Soft Heart is from. This collection was Arad’s first venture in the industrial process and since then he has been an innovator in the field.

I have not had a chance to get down and check out the storefront yet, but hope to do so this weekend.

Posted by Nicholas Van Kuren

2/2/09

The winner of the MoMa’s P.S. 1 Young Architect’s Program was announced yesterday. MOS Architects won the competition and will build a temporary installation in the P.S. 1 courtyard this summer. MOS partners, Hilary Sample and Michael Merideth collaborated to meet the program’s requirements with a design that will create “air cooled by the courtyard’s existing shaded concrete walls and concrete water troughs that will be drawn up through the chimneys by induction…creating a breeze.”

The project is entitled Afterparty and will utilize basic materials to reflect and comment on current economic times. The main structure will be a lightweight aluminum frame, built with recyclable parts which require minimal assembly, and which will become a landmark for the neighborhood. MOS hopes to accomplish all of this with the small budget of $70,000.

Each year P.S. 1 invites a group of emerging architects to experiment with new shapes and materials. Last year’s winner, Work AC, accomplished this with their PF1 project. I had the chance to view the Public Farm project during one of P.S. 1’s Warm Up events and was thoroughly impressed with the transformation of the courtyard into a garden oasis.

Afterparty is set to open in June. Let’s hope the team can overcome the small budget and live up to the standards set by last year’s winner.

Posted by Nicholas Van Kuren

1/27/09

The Danish design and art collective, N55, made the blog rounds a couple of months ago after unveiling their Walking House. The Copenhagen-based artist community aims to promote a revival in nomadic and low impact living by utilizing advancements in modern technology. Much in the same vein as the Walking House, the group has also been working on the Urban Free Habitat System.

The result of a workshop by N55 at the Metropolis Laboratory in Copenhagen, the Urban Free Habitat System is meant to provide an alternative to traditional urban planning. Residents of a city often have little power in making decisions about their environment and N55 hope to change that with this system.

Key points about the system:

- The Urban Free Habitat System would allow residents to design the public places they inhabit and share these places with others, regardless of the financial situations of those interested. Using this system, people would be able to create free places to stay, meet, cook and eat.

- The system is low cost and therefore a realistic option for local communities. The required materials and knowledge of construction methods are all available to average citizens.

- The Urban Free Habitat System can be moved to a new site by one person, simply by rolling it like a ball. It can scale up or down and be used inside existing buildings and outdoors.

It seems that in areas with a high concentration of human activity, especially in today’s economy, clusters of Urban Free Habitat Systems might be needed.

Posted by Nicholas Van Kuren